Review for Harold Meltzer's "Aqua"
A review of Harold Meltzer’s 2008 Barlow Prize commission, Aqua, recently stated: “One of the most intriguing aspects of Meltzer’s artistry is his gift for fabricating gossamer strands of sound that metamorphose into vast vistas…Aqua dissolves the boundaries between visible monuments to man’s ambitions and the intangible pursuit of community.”
Allan Cronin on the New Music Buff website defines Meltzer’s writing and Avalon’s performance as “genius, the ability to mix all these string techniques into a coherent whole.” Cronin’s description states, “Its string writing is complex with a vast mixture of effects that, under the interpretive skill of the Avalon String Quartet, suggest movement in much the way the building itself does.”
“Aqua” is featured on the “Songs and Structures” CD, which appears on The New York Times’ “25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2018” list.
